Canines oftentimes wear garments for a wide variety of reasons. One such garment is a vest. Vests are oftentimes utilized by canines (hereinafter referred to as a dog for convenience) in military and law enforcement applications such as search and rescue, drug enforcement and other civil and criminal applications. Such vests are oftentimes used to allow a dog to carry supplies and/or equipment, to be hoisted and/or carried by a handler, or even parachute with a handler into the area of investigation with the vest being used to attach the dog temporarily to the handler. The vest may also be used to provide armor protection for the dog in combat zones or in certain law enforcement applications. Currently, such vests are provided in general fixed sizes (e.g. small, medium, large) and/or with size adjusting means like adjustable straps. However, these sizing means have not been totally effective to provide proper fit and proper functioning of a vest particularly in harsh use conditions. Additionally, adjustable vests require adjustment devices that add to the manufacturing cost and can make the vest functionally less reliable. Still further, and importantly, many animals and most notably dogs have widely varying girth dimensions depending upon the type and size of the dog as well as varying length dimensions making fitting a garment difficult and unreliable.
The present invention solves the aforementioned problems by providing a sizing garment that reliably provides girth measurements of a dog or other animal at predetermined longitudinal positions along the length of the dog or other animal to allow making custom sized garments.